Track when your website content was last modified for SEO
Understanding the creation and modification dates of web pages is essential for content management, SEO, and ensuring the timeliness of information is presented to users.
This article explains how to collect these dates using meta tags and/or structured JSON (JSON-LD) on your web pages. By incorporating these elements, you can ensure that tools like Insytful can accurately capture the necessary information.
Why collect created and last modified dates?
- For content management: Keeping track of these dates helps maintain a robust content strategy and audit outdated content.
- Unlock SEO benefits: Search engines favour up-to-date content. To enhance your SEO efforts, provide clear metadata about your content's creation and modification dates.
- Better user experience: Users appreciate knowing when content was created or last updated, especially for time-sensitive information.
Using meta tags to indicate dates
Meta tags are HTML elements that provide structured metadata about a web page. You can indicate your content's creation and modification dates by including specific meta tags.
Examples of meta tags for dates
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI):
<meta name="dcterms.created" content="2023-06-01"> <meta name="dc.created" content="2023-06-01"> <meta name="dcterms.issued" content="2023-06-01"> <meta name="dc.date.issued" content="2023-06-01"> <meta name="dc.issued" content="2023-06-01">
Facebook Open Graph:
<meta property="article:published_time" content="2023-06-01T12:00:00Z"> <meta property="og:published_time" content="2023-06-01T12:00:00Z"> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2023-06-05T12:00:00Z"> <meta property="og:modified_time" content="2023-06-05T12:00:00Z"> <meta property="og:updated_time" content="2023-06-05T12:00:00Z">
These metatags can be added to the <head> section of your HTML document to provide the necessary metadata.
Using structured JSON (JSON-LD) to indicate dates
JSON-LD is a lightweight Linked Data format used to structure data. It is embedded in a script tag within the HTML document and is particularly useful for search engines and other applications that process structured data.
Example of JSON-LD for dates
Here is how you can include JSON-LD structured data to indicate the creation and modification dates of your content:
<script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "<http://schema.org>", "@type": "Article", "datePublished": "2023-06-01T12:00:00Z", "dateModified": "2023-06-05T12:00:00Z" } </script>
This script should be placed within the <head> or <body> of your HTML document. It uses the Article type from Schema.org, which is appropriate for most web content.
Combining meta tags and JSON-LD
For comprehensive coverage, you can include both meta tags and JSON-LD in your web pages. This ensures that different tools and search engines can easily read the date information.
Combined example
<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> <meta name="dcterms.created" content="2023-06-01"> <meta property="article:published_time" content="2023-06-01T12:00:00Z"> <meta property="og:published_time" content="2023-06-01T12:00:00Z"> <meta name="dcterms.modified" content="2023-06-05"> <meta property="article:modified_time" content="2023-06-05T12:00:00Z"> <meta property="og:modified_time" content="2023-06-05T12:00:00Z"> <script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "<http://schema.org>", "@type": "Article", "datePublished": "2023-06-01T12:00:00Z", "dateModified": "2023-06-05T12:00:00Z" } </script> <title>Example Page</title> </head> <body> <h1>Welcome to Example Page</h1> <p>This page includes metadata for creation and modification dates.</p> </body> </html>
By including these examples on your site, tools like Insytful can accurately pick up the creation and modification dates, ensuring your content remains current and well-managed.
Conclusion
Incorporating meta tags and JSON-LD into your web pages is an effective way to manage and display your content's creation and modification dates. This practice improves your SEO approach, enhances user experience, and helps maintain a robust content strategy.
Implementing these examples ensures Insytful can accurately capture the necessary information, providing you with a reliable system for data management.